Denial of bail to Rubashkin fueling legal controversy

NEW YORK (JTA) — Nearly from the moment federal immigration agents raided the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, on May 12, supporters of the company alleged that it was being unfairly singled out by the government and unjustly excoriated in the media.

Nearly eight months later, a judge’s denial of bail to the plant’s former manager, Sholom Rubashkin, has drawn the attention of several national Jewish organizations and provided those who see anti-Semitic motives in the government’s behavior with their best ammunition.

At a hearing Nov. 19 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, federal prosecutors argued that Rubashkin was a flight risk in part because Israel grants automatic citizenship to Jews. In a subsequent filing with the court, the government claimed that Rubashkin has “de-facto dual citizenship.”

In two separate rulings, Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles sided with the prosecution and ordered that Rubashkin, who faces an array of charges related to his management of the packing plant, be detained until trial. An appeal is pending before the chief justice of the Iowa court, Linda Reade.

“It really boils down, if you are a Jew, special rules apply to you,” said Rubashkin attorney Guy Cook.

The prosecution’s argument, and Scoles’ endorsement of it, has prompted the Anti-Defamation League and Agudath Israel of America, a fervently Orthodox umbrella group, to appeal directly to the U.S. attorney general, Michael Mukasey, a practicing Orthodox Jew.

In letters last month, the groups argued that by invoking the Law of Return, prosecutors effectively claimed that all Jews are inherently a greater risk of flight. Both groups warned that Scoles, in ruling against Rubashkin, had set a dangerous precedent with profound implications for American Jews.

“The most troubling aspect here is that the government does not appear to have alleged, nor does the Detention Order conclude, that Defendant Rubashkin has any particular ties to Israel (he is alleged to have visited Israel in December 2007),” the ADL’s national director, Abraham Foxman, wrote to Mukasey. “Instead, the government and the Detention Order appear to conclude that simply because Defendant Rubashkin is Jewish, and because Jews may have a claim on Israeli citizenship, his religion is relevant to a bail hearing.”

Though American Jews have long been sensitive to the charge of dual loyalty, invoking the Law of Return as grounds for detaining a Jewish defendant is believed to be unprecedented in the annals of American justice.

“Although prosecutors have, to my knowledge, occasionally skirted close to an argument singling out Jews and Israel in past cases in New York, I’ve never seen it expressed or applied as blatantly as in the Rubashkin case,” Nathan Lewin, a prominent Washington attorney and former counsel to Agriprocessors, told JTA.

Prosecutors had cited other evidence arguing against releasing Rubashkin, including the discovery of a travel bag with thousands of dollars of cash and travel documents for family members at Rubashkin’s home at the time of his arrest. They also noted that two other former Agriprocessors workers suspected of crimes are believed to have fled to Israel.

Rubashkin’s attorneys countered that he has deep ties to his family and community, several members of which agreed to put up the equity value of their homes as a guarantee that Rubashkin would not flee. Rubashkin told the court he was willing to put up millions of dollars in bail money and consent to round-the-clock security monitoring at his own expense.

Jonathan Edelstein, a New York lawyer who co-authored a 2002 legal journal article about Israeli extradition law, called the government’s argument “98 percent bogus” and said Rubashkin would quickly be returned if he did end up in the Jewish state.

“[Rubashkin] is neither a citizen or a resident,” Edelstein said. “He would have no protection if he flees to Israel. They would send him right back.”

In his first ruling in the case, Scoles cited the Law of Return in deciding that no combination of factors could reasonably guarantee Rubashkin’s appearance at trial. In a subsequent ruling on Dec. 22, in which he denied Rubashkin’s request for reconsideration of the original detention order, Scoles seemed to back away from the Law of Return argument.

“Much of the Defendant’s argument is directed to the Court’s reference to Israel’s Law of Return,” Scoles wrote in denying the request. “Defendant attaches too much significance to that single reference. At the time of hearing, [Rubashkin attorney Baruch] Weiss made it clear that if Defendant attempted to seek refuge in Israel, he would be subject to extradition. Mr. Weiss served as an assistant United States Attorney for 18 years, and the Court accepted his representation.”

In the second of two letters to Mukasey, Agudah’s executive vice president for government and public affairs, David Zwiebel, acknowledged that Scoles apparently had rejected the government’s claim about the Law of Return. Nevertheless, the organization remained concerned that prosecutors had even resorted to such an argument. Zwiebel asked Mukasey for a meeting with Jewish leaders to address their concerns.

A Department of Justice spokesperson said the letters are being reviewed.

Meanwhile, two organizations affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch, the Brooklyn-based Chasidic group with which Rubashkin is associated, have begun raising money for his legal defense. One of the organizations, the National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education, is using money from its Pidyon Shevuyim Fund to help secure Rubashkin’s release. Neither the ADL nor Agudath expressed a view on Rubashkin’s guilt or innocence, or whether he ought to be released on bond.

“We are a group of guys who, No. 1, are looking to help Rubashkin get out on bail and, No. 2, to voice our concern because we believe that much of this attack is not just an attack on the Rubashkin family and Agriprocessors, but it’s really an attack on kosher food.,” Rabbi Shea Hecht, the chairman of the National Committee and a member of a working group on the Rubashkin issue, told JTA. “And it’s questionable if it’s one step beyond that — an attack on Jews.”

(Staff writer Eric Fingerhut in Washington contributed to this report.)

Back in the mid-1970s I worked as a student reporter for the Woonsocket Call, a family-owned daily in northern Rhode Island. Among my tasks was to pore through the microfilm once a month for the purpose of compiling a column of items from the previous five, 10, 25 and 50 years.

It was in the course of carrying out this assignment that I learned a shocking fact: in the early 50s, the Call ran (gasp) front-page advertisements. Indeed, such was the extent of its depravity that, on Wednesdays, it published a half-page ad on page one from a local store called McCarthy’s under the headline McCarthy’s Front Page. Somehow the paper, and the citizens of Woonsocket, had survived.

So forgive me if I can’t bring myself to join those expressing outrage over the New York Times’s decision to start running display ads on its own front page. Actually, strike that. Forgive me if I can’t even find anyone expressing outrage over the Times’ long-overdue move. As best as I can tell, the commentary has mainly been of the “what took them so long” variety, spiced with a bit of “when will the Washington Post follow suit?”

Taking a particularly snarky view is Peter Kafka of the Wall Street Journal, whose owner, Rupert Murdoch, would dearly love to buy the Times from the Sulzberger family. Kafka writes that “this is only historic because the Times management has been so stubborn about keeping its front page pristine. It’s hard to imagine that any reader will care.”

The ads are certainly lucrative. According to the New York Post, the Times is getting $75,000 per ad on weekdays and $100,000 on Sundays. Here in Boston, it surely won’t be long before the Times Company-owned Boston Globe – which may be losing as much as $1m a week – makes the same move. (The tabloid Boston Herald has published front-page ads for several years.) The Globe had advertising-related news of its own on Monday: the paper will no longer publish a daily classified-ad section, relegating them to the web except for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday editions.

As several observers have already pointed out, front-page ads were common in American newspapers during the first half of the 20th century. But thanks to prosperity and the rise of journalism as a would-be profession, newspapers banished front-page ads because (1) they could and (2) the few that didn’t came to be seen as parochial backwaters of dubious quality and even more dubious ethical standards.

My stint at the Call coincided precisely with the transition of newspapering from craft to profession. Our newsroom was balanced between hometown reporters who’d started writing for the paper right out of high school and college-educated careerists just passing through.

You might think that we careerists sneered at the townies, but we really didn’t. I think we had a certain respect for their dedication to the Call and to the small city in which they’d grown up. But we all understood that we had different opportunities, and that we’d be moving on.

The Call eventually passed from the Palmer family to the debt-laden Journal Register Company to, today, a small regional group. A friend who lives in Woonsocket tells me there are still no ads on page one, but should that change, I would find it neither surprising nor offensive.

Of course, the New York Times is not the Woonsocket Call, and there are certain peculiarities to the Times that make its embrace of front-page display ads noteworthy. For better or worse, the Times remains the flagship of American journalism. This is simply a bigger deal than it was when national papers such as the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today began running ads on their fronts.

Weirdly enough, though, until a few years ago the Times was one of the few quality papers to run front-page ads of any kind. For instance, on Fridays the paper has often run a small classified ad from a Lubavitch group reminding “Jewish women and girls” to light Shabbat candles – an odd, charming touch, but one that contradicts any notion that the Sulzbergers kept their front page “pristine” until now, as the Journal’s Kafka suggests.

But perhaps the most important reason none of this really matters is that the Times’ principal front page – the homepage of NYTimes.com – has, like virtually every news website, run as many ads as it can sell from the moment it flickered into view. To argue that there is something sacrosanct about the Times’ print edition is to argue for a world that’s not just fading, but that’s already gone.

The newspaper business is being battered by the shift to online and by what may turn out to be the worst recession since the 1930s. Publishers must do whatever they can to pay for the journalism on which we all depend, as long as those steps don’t compromise the integrity of that journalism.

That there’s been so little, if any, criticism of the Times for breaking the page-one advertising barrier is a sign of maturity.

December 23, 2007

Mizrachi Bank’s Los Angeles Rep

In some cases, the contributions were returned as cash payments through what the government called “an underground money transfer network” involving businesses in and around Los Angeles’s jewelry district, the government said.

Three men in California were charged with taking part in the money transfer network: Yaacov Zeivald, 43, a professional scribe from Valley Village, Calif.; Yosef N. Naiman, 55, a tour company owner from Los Angeles; and Alan Friedman, 43, a businessman, also from Los Angeles. A fourth man, Moshe A. Lazar, 60, a diamond dealer, was charged in the scheme as well and was believed to be in Israel, the government said.

The contributions were repaid by a sophisticated series of wire transfers from businesses controlled by the Spinka sect to secret accounts in Israel, the government said. The accounts were established with the help of an official at the Israeli bank, Joseph Roth, 66, of Tel Aviv, who was arrested in Los Angeles, and a Tel Aviv lawyer, Jacob Kantor, 71, who remained at large in Israel, the government said.

According to the indictment, Mr. Roth helped the contributors get loans from a Los Angeles branch of the bank so their money would be available to them in the United States. The contributors could also hire officials of the Spinka sect to repatriate their money for them, albeit for a fee, the government said.

For about a decade, Yossi Ross aka Joseph Roth, 66, of Tel Aviv, was Mizrachi Bank’s L.A. rep. Traditional Jews had the attitude, “Let’s bank with Mizrachi Bank and make Israel some money.”

Orthodox Jews knew Yossi. He lived in the Valley. He lived an Orthodox life. At Shaarey Zedek, he’d daven from the bima (pulpit). He had a nice voice. He was a nice guy.

Central District of California

The Grand Rabbi of Spinka, a religious group within Orthodox Judaism, was arrested this morning along with several associates charged in an indictment that alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud U.S. government agencies, to operate a underground money transfer system and to launder money through an Israeli bank.

Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzi Weisz, 59, and Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, 60, both of Brooklyn, New York, were indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles. The 37-count indictment, which was unsealed this morning, alleges that Weisz and Zigelman solicited millions of dollars of contributions to several Spinka charitable organizations by promising to secretly refund up to 95 percent of the contributions. In this manner, the contributors could claim as tax deductions the full amounts of their contributions, while actually having contributed as little as 5 percent of the amount they would declare on their federal income tax returns.

Weisz and Zigelman would surreptitiously refund up to 95 percent of the contributions through several methods, according to the indictment. In some cases, the contributors received cash payments through an underground money transfer network involving various parties, some of whom operated businesses in and around the Los Angeles jewelry district. Several participants in the underground money transfer network were also indicted yesterday and arrested this morning. They are: Yaacov Zeivald, 43, of Valley Village, California; Yosef Nachum Naiman, 55, of Los Angeles; and Alan Jay Friedman, 43, all of Los Angeles. Another man allegedly involved in the underground money transfer network, Moshe Arie Lazar, 60, of Los Angeles, was not arrested and is believed to be in Israel.

A second method used to reimburse contributors was wire transfers from Spinka-controlled entities into accounts secretly held at a bank in Israel. The accounts were established with the assistance of an international accounts manager at the bank, Joseph Roth, 66, of Tel Aviv, and Tel Aviv attorney Jacob Ivan Kantor, 71, both of whom are charged in the indictment. Roth allegedly assisted contributors in the United States obtain loans from the Los Angeles branch of the Israeli bank, loans that were secured by the funds in the secret bank accounts in Israel, so the contributors could have the use of the funds in the United States. After their money was placed in the secret accounts at the Israeli bank, contributors also could hire Spinka to help secretly repatriate the money into the United States in exchange for an additional money laundering fee, the indictment alleges. Roth was arrested this morning in Los Angeles. Kantor has not been arrested and is believed to be in Israel.

The indictment charges Weisz and Zigelman with one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and other crimes, 19 counts of mail fraud, one money laundering conspiracy count, 11 counts of international money laundering, and one count of operating an illegal money remitting business. Zigelman is also charged with two counts of aiding in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns. Roth is charged in both conspiracy counts; several mail fraud counts; and several international money laundering counts. Kantor is charged in both of the conspiracy counts and several international money laundering counts. Zeivald, Lazar, Naiman, and Friedman are charged in the main conspiracy count and with operating an illegal money remitting business. Zeivald is also named in one mail fraud count. If convicted, all of the defendants face substantial federal prison sentences.

In the money laundering conspiracy charge, five Spinka charitable organizations – Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, Yeshivath Spinka, Central Rabbinical Seminary, Machne Sva Rotzohn, and Mesivta Imrei Yosef Spinka, all based in Brooklyn – are named as defendants. These entities allegedly issued fraudulent receipts for bogus charitable contributions and were the beneficiaries of fees charged for transfers of funds as part of the money laundering conspiracy.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Weisz, Zigelman, Roth, Zeivald, Naiman and Friedman were all arrested in the Los Angeles area this morning and are scheduled to make their initial appearances in United States District Court this afternoon.

The case is part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS-Criminal Investigation.

Outrage at Boro Park Y alleging child molester still has access to center

BY SIMONE WEICHSELBAUM
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU

Sunday, January 4th 2009, 10:51 PM

An accused Brooklyn child molester charged with fondling a boy inside a Boro Park Y six years ago still frequents the kiddie-packed center, the Daily News has learned.

Arthur Samet, 48, was arrested in October and charged with sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child beginning in December 2001 at the 14th Ave. YM-YWHA’s Jacuzzi, according to court records.

The victim, now 19, came forward last fall to report the alleged crime.

Officials at the Y were stunned to learn of the alleged incident.

“This is the first time I am hearing about this,” said Boro Park YM-YWHA director Ellie Kastel, who was shown court documents detailing the encounters by a News reporter.

“I am very disturbed that we weren’t informed. It is very important to us to protect our children,” Kastel said.

Asked if Samet will lose his membership, Kastel replied: “I will do what my lawyers tell me to do.”

Samet was arrested in 2007 on a charge of sexual misconduct, but the victim later refused to prosecute because of intense pressure from the Jewish community, police sources said. The case was later sealed.

In the current case, investigators wanted to protect the victim from outside influence and did not officially notify the YMHA, sources said.

Prosecutors took up the case even though it was six years before the teen came forward, because state law gives child victims of sex abuse up to five years past their 18th birthday to tell authorities, said a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

The teen told investigators in October that Samet molested him inside the Y three times, between December 2001 and March 2002. At least one instance occurred while they both sat inside the Y’s Jacuzzi, sources said. Samet refused to comment at a December court appearance. His lawyer, Richard Finkel, said Samet is a “family man.”

The issue of molestation has become more visible in the insular Borough Park community in recent months because of several arrests. Samet is the third man charged with sexually or physically abusing a child.

New York, NY – Chabad Committee Formed to Help Rubashkin Defense

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Published on: Dec 30, 2008 at 04:18 PM

New York, NY – A group of Lubavitch Chassidim, members of the Chabad Jewish Community in Brooklyn, NY, is planning on monitoring the well being of Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, imprisoned head of the Agriprocessors Kosher meat plant in Postville, IA.

The group, which has years of experience in assisting community members with legal troubles, turned their attention to Rubashkin six weeks ago. Called The Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim (Anash meaning Chassidim, Pidyon Shevuyim – the mitzva of redemption of prisoners) will focus on assisting the Rubashkin family.

The Committee is working with top lawyers for the best defense and a public relations group, and will be collecting funds for the legal defense and keeping the community involved.

In a press release sent to COLlive, they wrote: “The committee wants the public to know they are the official group to assist and aid the Rubashkins, endorsed by the family. The committee has years of experience in dealing with pidyon shevuyim cases, and now they have turned their attention to helping Sholom Rubashkin.”

Several members of the committee held a private meeting today (Sunday) at the offices of The National Committee for the Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), a Brooklyn-based educational and humanitarian organization (which both Hecht brothers direct).

Following the meeting – of which COLlive was invited to photograph but not record – the committee held a press conference for the Lubavitch media in an effort to “call on the worldwide Lubavitch community to take action, get involved, and donate to the Rubashkin legal fund.”

Other Jewish groups are expected to speak out on behalf of Rubashkin, citing that “the case is now an attack against shechita.”

Rabbi Pesach Lerner of Young Israel and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel of Agudas Yisroel are said to be planning a trip to Iowa to meet with Rubashkin in prison.

This Tuesday, lawyers from Grefe and Sidney will be visiting Crown Heights to meet with the committee and residents. They are scheduled to meet with Aron Rubashkin, patriarch and founder of the Agri plant.

“Lubavitch in Crown Heights, and around the world, needs to know – from S. Padre Island, Texas to Shanghai, China, Kosher meat was available because of the Rubashkins,” Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht said. “Any traveler, as well, benefitted from Rubashkin. This affects every single person that eats kosher throughout the world.”

A new committee has been formed to supervise efforts to secure the release of Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin, former CEO of Agriprocessors in Postville, IA • The group, which is comprised of individuals with years of experience in assisting community members with legal troubles, began assisting Rubashkin six weeks ago • ‘The Committee of Concerned Anash for Pidyon Shevuyim’ will focus on assisting the Rubashkin familly in all matters.

[“Anash” is an acronym that basically means members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community.” “Pidyon Shvuyim” means redemption of captives.]

The Committee is working with a team of top lawyers for the best defense as well as a public relations group, and will be collecting funds for the legal defense and keeping the community involved with the cause, Chabad.info was told.

In a press release sent to Chabad.info, the committee made the following statement: “The committee wants the public to know they are the official group to assist and aid the Rubashkins, endorsed by the family. The committee has years of experience in dealing with pidyon shevuyim cases, and now they have turned their attention to helping Sholom Rubashkin.”

Following the meeting the committee held a press conference for the Lubavitch media in an effort to call on the worldwide Lubavitch community to take action, get involved, and donate to the Rubashkin legal fund. The meeting was attended by reporters representing many chabad news outlets, including Chabad.info.

Other Jewish groups are expected to speak out on behalf of Rubashkin, citing that “the case is now an attack against shechita.”

Rabbi Pesach Lerner of Young Israel and Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel of Agudas Yisroel are said to be planning a trip to Iowa to meet with Rubashkin in prison.

This Tuesday, lawyers from Grefe and Sidney, one of the firms defending Rubashkin will be visiting Crown Heights to meet with the committee and residents. They are scheduled to meet with Ahron Rubashkin, patriarch and founder of the Agri plant.

“Lubavitch in Crown Heights, and around the world, needs to know – from S. Padre Island, Texas to Shanghai, China, Kosher meat was available because of the Rubashkins,” Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht said. “Any traveler, as well, benefited from Rubashkin. This affects every single person that eats kosher throughout the world.”